Category: Medical News

Living a healthy lifestyle can cut your cancer risk. New findings show that paying attention to your diet and getting regular exercise makes you over 45% less likely to develop cancer (azhha). According to NewsMax Health, “Speaking on the findings, Kohler, one of the authors of the study, commented that “Behaviors such as poor diet choices, physical inactivity, excess alcohol consumption …

Written By:  Robert Ripley, MD,FACS, General Surgeon Hernias are enlarged natural opening in the body or separations of muscle that allow underlying tissue to protrude through them.  An example of a natural opening hernia is the hiatal hernia that allows the stomach to protrude into the chest cavity.  Separations of muscle can occur in previous incisions.  Abdominal incisions are the …

Written by McKenzie Jones, Intern, Grand Canyon University Have you noticed as your loved one is sleeping, their breathing pauses for fairly long periods of time? Or that their snoring is unbearable? 42 million Americans have sleep disorder breathing (SDB) according to the New England Journal of Medicine.  Sleep apnea is a chronic condition that is the leading cause of …

(picture courtesy of The United Blood Services website) According to an article from the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, Arizona is running out of blood. The article quotes the Arizona Republic by stating, “The rapidly spreading Zika virus outbreak has prompted United Blood Services officials to request all eligible blood donors to get out to donate — and fast. Donors who have …

The first of two confirmed measles cases were made public last week in Pinal County and the total number is expected to rise.  Up to a third of measles cases become severe and may progress to pneumonia, seizures, encephalitis, brain damage, and death. “The best way to prevent measles is through two doses of MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine given according to …

By Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. Director, NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) An Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector of Zika virus. PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES GATHANY, CDC.(http://goo.gl/xy938i) Zika virus is not actually new. It was first recognized in 1947 in a monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda. It was not known to infect humans until 1952, and it stayed …

Colon cancer strikes males and females equally.  Around the world it is more frequent in industrialized countries, and this suggests genetic and environmental influences.  In the United States it affects blacks and whites equally, but Native Americans have a much lower occurrence rate. Among environmental factors, diet has been implicated frequently.  It is felt that a high fiber diet, which …

Written By: Robert Ripley, MD, FACS, General Surgeon Breast and lung cancer are the most common causes of cancer deaths in American women. About 12% of women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime.  Fortunately, when breast cancer is caught early it can be successfully treated.  Although breast cancer is not preventable, a low fat, high-fiber diet coupled with regular exercise …